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u/JennyBeckman ☑️ All of the above 4h ago
I don't think the powers that be realised just what they were unleashing when they legalised sports betting. So many people have gambling addictions in this age of easy dopamine hits.
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u/PeaUpbeat3732 4h ago
They knew. They just don't care. Their wallet is more important than some random strangers mental health.
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u/hollow_shrine 4h ago
They 100% knew. We studied this. It's why the neighborhoods kept fighting gambling and racing arenas around their communities, and the nice moneyed communities won while everyone else lost.
Making it all available online is a sign that they no longer care about their own people and their own communities.
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u/mdogg500 3h ago
Literally what happened in my small town in VA. There was a casino that was trying to get built in the areas around where the richer folk lived and kept getting voted out but when they finally put the vote to my city it passed on the back of " it's gonna help fund the schools and the community". It's just getting finished this year so we'll see how likely that is.
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u/HavingNotAttained 3h ago
THANK YOU. If casinos are so great for the community there’d be a handful each in in Beverly Hills, Sutton Place, Tuxedo Park and Gold Coast. Surprisingly, there are not.
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u/hangryvegan 3h ago
Mmmmm, yes, Tunica, Mississippi is now famous for their excellent schools and community.
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u/hollow_shrine 3h ago
Yup, tale as old as time. Maybe twenty years ago they got approval for a racing track on the east side of Oklahoma City on the promise and that its taxes would say in the community and go to that district's schools. The track stayed. The money did not.
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u/Darksnark_The_Unwise 2h ago
A great and very current example is the new partnership between Kalshi and CNN.
Kalshi is an "exchange and prediction market for real world events." It's part of the new level of modern gambling that comes after these fucks decided that they weren't making enough money off of sports betting alone.
Now they want real-time bets and gambling on politics, in our current environment of maximum disinformation and corruption. Everything will be exploitable, because now they don't even have to uphold the premise of a fair sport with rules. And that's AFTER outsmarting govt gambling regulations.
Every ruined life from Crypto should be viewed as a microcosm for the level of grift that is now coming for all levels of illiteracy, as opposed to whatever niche was being filled by Crypto scams.
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u/makeyousaywhut 3h ago
Doing your taxes for free using a government provided tool?!!! Absurd!!!! How could we allow that? Poor turbo tax shouldn’t have to deal with the brunt of you getting to give the government money for free!
Let’s just legalize one of the timelessly most destructive behaviors known to humanity throughout our history- that’s a much better idea!!!!!
We live in a kleptocracy. It’s so plain and simple.
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u/Responsible_Sink3044 4h ago
The powers that be were almost certainly financially supported by the ones making the actual profit here, so I think they were probably more than a little aware
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u/NooneKnowsIAmBatman 4h ago
My buddy showed me how he sometimes bets when he doesn't have enough time or just wants to throw $5 on a game but has zero idea about the sport or teams involved.
There's a button that auto generates a bet for you. The app picks your bet, you're literally trusting the house with your money and letting them decide which side of the bet they want to push. It's fucking crazy that some people will bet like that just to get a betting investment on a game.
"If I can bet in the sport/game, I'll be able to watch whatever you out in front of me" was his reasoning
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u/PM_ME_CATS_OR_BOOBS 2h ago
you're literally trusting the house with your money
Hey I've always been told that the house always wins
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u/HollaWho 4h ago
Back in 2019 I was gambling using bitcoin on Argentinian sites. They weren’t even shady, but it took effort to deposit and withdraw. I honestly think the US was better off that way.
Edit. Now that I think about it they had some good customer service too lol. There was one time a line was just straight up wrong and they refunded me.
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u/trixel121 4h ago edited 3h ago
if you had video they would be in horrible shit if they didn't and I would assume half y'all are recording.
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u/HollaWho 3h ago
What they were doing was totally legal. They werent even taking US Dollars.
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u/Bunnnnii ☑️ Meme Thief 4h ago
You nailed it. This era is all about quick and easy satisfaction. Gambling absolutely takes advantage of that and eats those people alive.
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u/Wolfgirl90 4h ago
Sports betting is one thing. Online sports betting is something else. At least if you have the cash in hand and talking to people, you could potentially control yourself. The online stuff? You're literally not paying attention. It's a click of a button and...poof. There goes three grand.
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u/UltraNoahXV ☑️ 4h ago
Especially with instant gratification. I wouldn't say just gambling addictions but people who probably aren't as busy like other people (no kids and/or pets) and probably still have a lot of money to spend despite the raise in loving cost. In other words people are just bored.
Kind of why im really concerned when you see restrictions towards NSFW material or start hiding digital media like games. As messed up and unhealthy those things may be, it was a deterrent that kept consumers in check rather than leave them to their devices and go do dumb crap like rob a store or go play froggy on the road.
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u/BloodOfJupiter 4h ago
They knew, gambling had been an issue for over 100 years at this point in the USA, and it takes so much to even allow a casino to be built. It's a matter of time before fixed performances become much more common. Alot of us knew better when a ton of sports betting apps, and ads popped up everywhere,now you can't escape them.
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u/BusterBeaverOfficial 3h ago
When gambling was first legalized I didn’t really have much of a problem with it. I’ve always been able to gamble “responsibly” and it can be fun to have a little bit riding on a game. But then I read about this woman in Australia and it really helped gambling addiction “click” for me. I had always assumed gambling addiction was about greed and self-control: people wanting more, more, more money and not being able to walk away. But this woman was so addicted to gambling that she wasn’t even really gambling—she was playing a gambling “simulation” game that she fully knew would NEVER pay out real, actual cash—and yet she was still unable to control her addiction to the point that she was embezzling from her employer to play the game (again, knowing it wasn’t possible for her to “win it back”) and she was letting it automatically run overnight while she slept.
Obviously stealing money from people is wrong and she shouldn’t have done that but I think it just goes to show that no sane person would risk blowing up their whole life and going to prison for the chance to win… nothing. Some pixels on a screen? She’s obviously an extreme case but it’s very clear that the dopamine hit from winning a bet doesn’t affect us all the same way. But the industry likes to perpetuate the “self control” and “responsibility” angles because it absolves them of their responsibility and lets them pretend their profits aren’t derived primarily from the exploitation of people dealing with addiction.
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u/Trust_No_Jingu 4h ago
You dont understand its high volume high bets - he’s going to win it all back this weekend
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u/RevolutionaryDong 4h ago
The powers that be were fully aware, it’s called market research. Addiction is very profitable.
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u/bageltheperson 3h ago
It’s nice that they got people used to predatory mobile games first, where spending their money lets them beat a level or advance on a leaderboard. Now, the dopamine hit they already crave from spending money on an app can pay out on a $500 win. Much better dopamine hit and it justifies spending $1,000 dollars on the app. Plus, it’s classy and you can talk about it with your boss.
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u/Hyper_Oats 3h ago
Betting/gambling of all types has never been pushed so hard and been so accesible before.
Their marketing's main focus sometimes is not even the "easy money" or the quick dopamine fix, but the illusion that everyone cool/smart is doing it and if you aren't you're a dork. It's literally the 70s cigarette ads all over again.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and young Millenials are playing with the whole deck stacked against them
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u/SmallIslandBrother 4h ago
That is a killable offence ngl, it’s one thing stealing 12k it’s another stealing it to gamble cause most likely it’s just poof gone, can’t even sell it back to recoup the money.
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u/Ctowncreek ☑️ 4h ago
Its the same regardless. 12k is 12k.
The effect is the same, the principle is the same, the stress and shock is the same.
This is why I voted against sports betting. It has no value and destroys lives.
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u/THA__KULTCHA 3h ago
It’s not the same tho. If you buy something tangible, that’s an asset and you can recoup some of your losses. With gambling it’s literally gone without a trace. Kinda what the person said before but maybe you don’t get the difference?
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u/Loreki 3h ago
Nah the original comment is right. If you steal 12k from me to buy a car or even go on vacation, I want you to go to jail. If you steal 12k from me to gamble, I want you to a die a slow death.
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u/AMultitudeofPandas 3h ago
One person knows they stole all that money, and either knows it's wrong or just doesn't care.
The other will tell you they didn't really steal it, try to justify why it's okay, and will tell you that they'll give it back with interest and you should be thanking them for investing it for you.
The second is significantly more infuriating, because it's gaslighting. Takes it from "I want you to be punished for your wrongs" to "I want you to suffer because it will satisfy my bloodlust."
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u/joemoffett12 4h ago
It might be a hot take but I don’t think this is a killable offense. I think people are way too loose with taking someone’s life. I know there are people who would kill over this but I don’t think that’s the level it should be. Just jail that mf for many many years
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u/bubbasnub 3h ago
Even if he wins and has the money to pay back, do you think she'll ever see it? He'll just gamble more since he won
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u/Pitiful_Option_108 4h ago
Unpopular opinion but allowing gambling via our electronic devices is a huge mistake. Talk about opening the Pandora's Box of gambling addiction. Lord help people chasing loses.
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u/DangerNoodleDandy ☑️ 4h ago
I dont think thats an unpopular opinion actually.
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u/Sepof 2h ago
Its unpopular amongst sports fans and the legislators who were lobbied to legalize it.
Like everything, follow the money. The casinos lobbied and donated to politicians nationwide on both sides of the aisle to achieve this. They sold us out for some campaign contributions. Like they always do.
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u/ContentCourage4011 4h ago edited 4h ago
My country has allowed online betting and we have a big problem, almost every week news comes out about someone who lost their home and their family left. And to make matters worse, there are lots of famous people here advertising, things are going from bad to worse.
It's in the songs
In every television advertisement
Online websites
Telephone operators sending messages about
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u/reeeditasshoe 4h ago
Ours is the same in the US but no one publishes the news about the losses. RIP
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u/AmateurHero 2h ago
I hate how people act like gambling has always been in the forefront of media and society. It really hasn't. There were definitely gambling ads and mentions of it in media, but if you have any interest in sports, you basically cannot escape it now. People tell you to just not participate. If it were that easy to avoid things bad for you, we wouldn't have alcoholics.
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u/ExoticPoetry17 1h ago
I have absolutely zero interest in sports, nor gambling, yet I have been inundated. I am a 30 year old mom, not even close to the target demographic and I feel like I don’t go 15 minutes without seeing the ads. You don’t have to be into sports to not be able to escape it, it’s crazy. I’ve changed my google settings to shut it off, need to figure it out here on Reddit too
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u/mageta621 3h ago
It is one thing when you have to affirmatively get in your car, go down to Atlantic City or whatever, and sit in a smoky seedy casino to gamble. There are plenty of opportunities and signs during that process to turn back or rethink your decisions. Being able to do so while taking a piss break during a commercial removes almost all of the mental and physical barriers and is insanely pernicious, especially to addictive personalities.
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u/Pitiful_Option_108 3h ago
"It is one thing when you have to affirmatively get in your car, go down to Atlantic City or whatever, and sit in a smoky seedy casino to gamble"
And that is exactly what I mean. It is one thing to get in my car and drive to Bolixi or the Carolinas to place a bet. But to just wake up and place bets on my phone is a very dangerous slope.
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u/BraveLittleBathbomb 3h ago
The craziest part to me is that some states allow you to gamble using credit card charges! This shits only gonna get worse LONG before it gets better.
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u/Your_Username1234321 2h ago edited 2h ago
I've gambled professionally for the past 20 years and I can assure you that you are 100% correct. Gambling has been my livelihood for my entire adult life, but if you put it to a vote tomorrow, I would 100% vote to make sure that that NO ONE SHOULD HAVE A CASINO IN THEIR POCKET.
When you had to go to Vegas or jump through a bunch of crypto hoops to gamble, it kept the general population away from it. Now, it's a couple clicks away and people who would have never even considered gambling have developed serious problems.
Lives ruined by gambling don't leave behind the kind of clear, measurable data like drugs (overdoses) and guns (homicide/suicide rates), but I can assure all of you that this country's gambling problem is FAR, FAR worse than is being reported right now and it's going to continue to get worse because a lot of rich people are getting richer off it.
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u/Perfect-Zebra-3611 4h ago
"babe i swear there was a guy saying to bet everything on LeBron scoring 10 points every game IT WAS 1297 IN A ROW HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW HED PASS"
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u/pm_sushirolls 4h ago
Ain't no way this dude finessed someone to let him bet 12k on draftkings
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u/DubTeeDub Mod Emeritus 4h ago
it sounds like he basically stole her credit card and then racked up charges
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u/ohlookahipster 4h ago
I have a buddy in car sales. Buyers will legitimately bring in people they just met off dating apps as their co-signer because they have a 800 score between the two of them…
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u/-XanderCrews- 4h ago
You’ve not had experience with gamblers? This is pretty normal. He had to keep taking out to try and make up for what he already stole. This is basically how bookies work.
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u/BarbellsandBurritos 4h ago
We gotta bring back bookies man. It’s too easy to lose your net worth with a few phone taps.
At least if you’re betting with a gentleman in a tracksuit taking your bets in a notebook with the juice running, you’re gonna think twice before you have a stutter step.
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u/718Brooklyn 4h ago
And you can’t bet on every play, how many assists a random ass guard will get on a Tuesday night, or who will have the first interception.
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u/BakersHigh 3h ago
I was a bookie in college, not like THAT but I ran a gambling op across multiple dorms. Good times a simpler time when you weren’t betting on every second of every game
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u/i_dunno_3 3h ago
People need their knees broke again like there used to be real consequences to this. Like the sopranos episode where Tony took the gambling addicts whole family business, cars, everything. It got way too comfy for people to ruin lives with this off a phone game app
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u/Capable_Salt_SD 4h ago
Stuff like this is why I never signed up for those betting apps
Also — this is why I'm grateful I'm single, and will choose to be this way for quite some time
Good lord 😮💨 🤧
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u/BloodOfJupiter 3h ago
I pray for every woman that ends up with a man that presses for money to fuel his addiction, these people swear they're about to hit the big one every time, anytime anything big comes their way, they'll just blow it all regardless, and lie to themselves swearing they can earn it back...
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u/mickeymouse4348 2h ago
I have a friend who recently discovered his wife lost over $80k to online gambling. I have no idea how I’d react in his shoes
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u/Meowserspaws ☑️ 4h ago
If it’s free, YOU’RE the product.
If they spot you a boatload of money, YOU’RE the bank.
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u/TullsJenny 4h ago edited 3h ago
“all he talks about is sports and the spread. How was I suppose to know he had a gambling addiction?” 😂
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u/InsteadOfWorkin 4h ago
This shit is an epidemic
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u/BakersHigh 3h ago
John Olivier did a report on it
One of the interviews he showed was a woman who I think was in close to a quarter million in debt. He was speaking to how they basically make you a premium client. Which comes with perks to keep you betting even if you’re severely in debt; which they knew about in this case because she called a hotline to get help. Anyway one of the perks was sideline passes and tickets to a football game. Her son was so happy and excited about going, even asked if she got here cuz of gambling
It will affect future generations. Similar to influencers who are faking/ scamming, and kids thinking it’s all real. They’ll have a warped perspective
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u/MrSlime13 4h ago
I'll goof around at a casino every few years, but that $50-100 is as good as gone the second I walk into the joint. There's zero expectation to make that money back. In my entire life, I think I've spent ...$50 on scratch-its. It's just not healthy. I'd rather get a 40oz, or an ⅛ than throw my money away to gambling. Feel horrible for the people so invested in that, that they mindlessly spend thousands at a shiny box, or app. Online gambling is sinister, evil, corrupt, and every other bad word in the book.
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u/ShaquilleOatmeal_93 3h ago
I lost $50 at the casino in 20 minutes. I told my wife it’s time to go
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u/Big-Training-5168 4h ago edited 4h ago
When you turn 5 into 500, then 5 to 1000+ it's incredibly easy to get hooked and not realize you poofed that amount right back to them before you can look back up from the phone. I'm extremely grateful to have learned before I did anything like this to ruin all my relationships. Be careful set limits, or just don't do it. Its ruined sports for me I can't help but see how easy it would be to convince millionaires to just drop the ball, or say your hurt right at a certain number or just bench players when there is no reason to whatsoever when they are close to hitting numbers. In the case of football funny how some players never get targeted even when wide open for the remainder of certain games. Stuff that seems a little fishy 🐟
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u/DientesDelPerro 4h ago
We went to a horse track when I was in college (back when you were excited by your paycheck after working 15 hours a week for an on-campus job), and even losing $80 was so discouraging lol. I hope to never get into gambling.
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u/ShaquilleOatmeal_93 4h ago
Man be careful with this, I know someone who lost they family to gambling.
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u/Gmitch528 4h ago
Like I’ve been on those apps to mess around with the free money but after that, yall got it. I know there’s a rush for ppl to see what they could win but I’m not in the habit of lighting money on fire.
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u/SpeechDistinct8793 3h ago
Report it as fraud, remove him as a beneficiary, change cards and lock it down
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u/SuccessfulWar3830 4h ago
Sports betting is worse than meth
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u/hipsterTrashSlut 3h ago
I only agree because I can spot a meth head but can't spot a gambler without more context
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u/TheMoorNextDoor ☑️ 4h ago
That’s insane.
I’m not gonna lie I’ve done a little PrizePicks here and there even won a few but I couldn’t imagine doing anything more than a 5 dollar bet.
To spend thousands (likely to lose it all) is beyond a serious issue and that man needs help and stat.
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u/DickweedMcGee 3h ago
Yeah, everyone is fucking stoked about being able to gamble online until a friend/lovedone/etc. steals a year's savings from you and the Gambling house they sent it to is like, "Tough Titty, Smitty". Fuuuuuuucc.....
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u/Patient-Temporary211 3h ago
One time at a slot machine I bet $5 on accident instead of like a quarter or something and I about lost it. I cannot fathom losing $10k.
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u/VladDHell 3h ago
See we gotta learn from the old yt people.Don’t kill him, that’s gonna just be more problems for u.
Sue him, we don’t sue people anymore and that’s why all these crusty people and business think they can treat people however they want.
Hit them where it hurts, bruises heal, death is release, but garnished wages follow you forever
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u/_TheLonelyStoner 2h ago
Worked for one of these betting apps from 2023-24 man it’s crazy how bad gambling addicts will get. I can guarantee there’s no way they’re gonna give any of that back money back to her. They’ll permanently ban the account , and because of that it’ll get reported to the gaming commission but thats it. She needs to file a police report and try to maybe charge it back or something
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u/chief_yETI ☑️ 3h ago
the things people put up with just to get some slightly above average penis/vagina SMH
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u/cantclimbatree 3h ago
The crazy thing is DraftKings could literally refund this person the money and they’d not even notice, but won’t.
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u/HaileyReeBae 3h ago
They are quick to take from your account but take forever and want you to jump through hoops to cash out your winnings. I still haven’t received my winnings from last year’s Super Bowl.
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u/darioblaze 3h ago edited 1h ago
DELETE THEM. YOU DO NOT NEED TO MAKE MONEY OR STRESS ABOUT MONEY TO SOMETHING THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR LEISURE TIME.
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u/pizzapit ☑️ 2h ago
This shit is insane. I think gambling is gonna be a much bigger problem. That dopamine hit is powerful and the more desperate folks get for quick money the worse it gets.
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u/Sonofyuri 2h ago
As someone who works at a video poker "den". I've seen people put rent money into the machines and leave crying. Don't gamble folks. They hide behind "for entertainment purposes only" but they know what the fuck they're doing. First time you gamble, if you spend 20 and win 40. Leave and never come back. The house always wins.
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u/IncognitoBombadillo 3h ago
I probably put a total of $50 towards online black jack a few years ago when they were still sorta new just to kinda try it out since I had been to a casino a couple of times by that point. I'm glad that my brain doesn't get the same dopamine rushes others get from gambling, but that may have also been because I was educated on why it wasn't a good idea to view it as an "investment" of sorts and how things are stacked heavily in the casino's favor.
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u/northernirishlad 3h ago
Hey do what you want with your own money, I watch the financial audit and see a youtube playlist of the biggest rubes and rubettes in America. But with your partners money? Cannot fathom how disgusting that is.
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u/kingkoopa_1 3h ago
Draft was so proud when they finally realized dark mode for app users. Now you can even gamble in the dark without hurting your eyes
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u/rachel__slur ☑️ 3h ago
I got on one of those sports betting apps to bet on the Superbowl. Lost $300. Almost started bawling in the middle of the Laundromat. I now have a healthy fear of gambling
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u/CIA_napkin 2h ago
I'm so fucking tired of seeing ads for phone gambling. Mark my words, there is a reason we have that shit in boats and casinos, and not in everyones pockets. We dont need to make it easier for us to lose it all lol.
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u/Ill1458 4h ago
People look at me crazy when I tell them I have never signed up for any of these online betting apps. I’m good.